Fraenkel Gallery

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Fraenkel Gallery
Fraenkel Gallery logo.gif
Fraenkel Gallery
Established11 September 1979 (1979-09-11) [1]
Location49 Geary Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
Coordinates 37°47′17″N122°24′15″W / 37.788172°N 122.404278°W / 37.788172; -122.404278
FounderJeffrey Fraenkel
DirectorAmy Whiteside
PresidentDaphne Palmer
OwnerJeffrey Fraenkel
Public transit access Bay Area Rapid Transit Montgomery Street Station
Nearest car parkFifth & Mission Yerba Buena Garage and Ampco System Parking
Website fraenkelgallery.com

Fraenkel Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in San Francisco [2] [3] founded by Jeffrey Fraenkel in 1979. Daphne Palmer is president of the gallery. [4]

Contents

Fraenkel Gallery has presented more than 350 exhibitions, with a focus on photography and its relation to other arts including painting, drawing, sculpture, and video. The gallery’s mission is to expand the conversation around photography by bringing together work by artists across all media. Fraenkel Gallery’s exhibitions have spanned photography's history while exploring the medium’s role in the evolution of art, highlighting links between early photographic pioneers and multi-disciplinary artists of today. The gallery works to build personal connections in diverse arts communities, and emphasizes its commitment to the pleasures and rewards of viewing art in person. [5] The gallery maintains a robust publishing program, producing more than 77 [6] books and a wide range of posters to date, including titles that accompany specific exhibitions and coincide with anniversaries. [7]

History

Jeffrey Fraenkel opened Fraenkel Gallery on 11 September 1979 at 55 Grant Avenue, San Francisco. Frish Brandt joined Fraenkel Gallery in 1985, and became a partner in 1989. [5] [8] She served as President for eight years, and in 2023, she transitioned to President Emerita. Daphne Palmer joined the gallery in 2013 and was appointed President in 2024. [9]

Fraenkel Gallery’s inaugural exhibition featured 19th-century photographs of California by Carleton Watkins. In the gallery’s first decade, it brought new attention to under-recognized photographs by seldom-exhibited 19th-century artists including Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan, Anna Atkins, and Eadweard Muybridge. Fraenkel Gallery’s second exhibition featured Lee Friedlander, and the gallery soon began showing work by other significant 20th-century artists, including Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Diane Arbus, Robert Adams, Garry Winogrand, and Bruce Conner. [10]

Two years after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Fraenkel Gallery moved to a larger space at 49 Geary Street, one block from their first location. [5] [11] [12] The gallery expanded the range of artworks and media featured in exhibitions and books, and presented solo shows by artists including Nan Goldin, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sophie Calle, Richard Avedon, Sol LeWitt, Gilbert & George, Jay DeFeo, and Bernd and Hilla Becher, as well as group shows encompassing sculpture, drawing, and mixed media.

In the 2000s, Fraenkel Gallery began to feature more artists working outside of photography, and exhibitions during this decade included Edward Hopper & Company, [13] Nothing and Everything: Painting, Photography, Drawing & Sculpture 1896–2006, and Not Exactly Photographs. [14] The gallery also added Katy Grannan, [15] Peter Hujar, Christian Marclay, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard to its roster, and began participating in international art fairs including Art Basel and Paris Photo. [10]

In the 2010s, Fraenkel Gallery exhibited an increasingly wider swath of multi-disciplinary work, as well as video, sculpture, paintings, film posters, and record albums. The gallery added younger artists to its roster, including Alec Soth, Richard T. Walker, Wardell Milan, Elisheva Biernoff, and Richard Learoyd, as well as those working in a range of media, such as Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller and Mel Bochner. The satellite space FraenkelLAB, at 1632 Market Street in San Francisco, ran from 2016 through 2017 with a diverse and experimental program. The inaugural exhibition, Home Improvements, [16] was curated by John Waters, and subsequent exhibitions included the work of Richard T. Waker, [17] David Benjamin Sherry, [18]  Sophie Calle, Katy Grannan, Alec Soth and others.

Since 2020, the gallery’s roster has grown to include Liz Deschenes, [19] Kota Ezawa, Martine Gutierrez, [20] and Carrie Mae Weems, [21] who have been featured in solo exhibitions along with shows by longtime gallery artists Robert Adams, Bernd & Hilla Becher, [22] Nan Goldin, Richard Misrach, Hiroshi Sugimoto and others. The program has presented exhibitions curated by artists from various disciplines, including Carrie Mae Weems’s selection of photographs by Diane Arbus, Sir Elton John’s take on Peter Hujar, and film director Joel Coen’s view of Lee Friedlander. [23]

[24]

Publications (selected)

Anniversary publications

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Whiting, Sam (29 November 2014). "Picture of success: Gallery owner Jeffrey Fraenkel marks 35 years". San Francisco: San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Stein, Suzanne (3 January 2011). "75 Reasons to Live: Jeffrey Fraenkel on Diane Arbus". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Conway, Richard (5 February 2013). "The Unphotographable at Fraenkel". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  4. ↑ "Timeline". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Whiting, Sam (3 September 1999). "A Photographic Memory / Fraenkel Gallery celebrates 20 years". SFGate.com. San Francisco: San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "Shop | FRÆNKEL Publications". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  7. ↑ "Publications". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  8. ↑ "Frish Brandt Appointed President of Fraenkel Gallery". Fraenkel Gallery. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  9. ↑ "Timeline". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  10. 1 2 "40 Years". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  11. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (2014-11-30). "The best photo gallery ever, Fraenkel Gallery, turns 35". SFChronicle.com. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  12. ↑ Baker, Kanneth (25 August 2003). "For 25 years, the Fraenkel Gallery has focused its lens on photography's emergence as an art form. A celebration is developing". SFGate.com. San Francisco: San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Finkel, Jori (2009-02-27). "San Francisco Exhibition Explores Edward Hopper's Influences". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  14. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (2003-03-15). "Photography altered art; artists altered photographs". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  15. ↑ Baker, Kenneth (2015-06-13). "An antidote to irony at Fraenkel Gallery". SFChronicle.com. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  16. ↑ "John Waters-curated show shines light on the humdrum". SFChronicle.com. 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  17. ↑ "Richard T. Walker: An Occasionally Related Occurrence 1 & 2". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  18. ↑ "David Benjamin Sherry". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  19. ↑ "Works 1997-2022". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  20. ↑ "Half-Breed". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  21. ↑ "Carrie Mae Weems". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  22. ↑ Examiner |, Max Blue | Special to The (2023-02-02). "The sublime alienation of Bernd and Hilla Becher". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  23. ↑ "Filmmaker Joel Coen Puts His Spin on the Photos of Lee Friedlander". 2023-05-01. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  24. ↑ "Artists". Fraenkel Gallery. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  25. ↑ Baker, Kanneth (7 January 2010). "Catching up with Jeffrey Fraenkel". SFGate.com. San Francisco: San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  26. ↑ Baker, Kanneth (12 June 2015). "An antidote to irony at Fraenkel Gallery". San Francisco: San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  27. ↑ Alex Greenberger (6 December 2023), Carrie Mae Weems Joins Gladstone, Departing Her Longtime New York Gallery in the Process ARTnews .
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